Get Your Travel Blog Noticed

The other night at a Toronto Travel Massive meet up someone asked how to work with tourism agencies and PR companies. People seem discouraged that only a handful of Travel Bloggers end up on press trips or partner with companies.

I remember talking with Melanie of Travels With Two a year and a half ago asking her how she gets invited on so many trips. We didn't look at her success with frustration, we looked to her for inspiration and she told us that she has a very targeted travel blog that companies find attractive to work with. She runs one of the top Travel Couple Blogs on the Internet. It was less than a year later that we had the chance to travel on a press trip together to Rancho La Puerta in Mexico where we enjoyed being roomies for a week and now consider her and Adam very good friends.

PR companies do their research. They are well informed and they have their own lists and analytics that they draw from when choosing to travel bloggers. However, that doesn't mean that if you aren't on one of those lists and nobody is calling that you can't take control of the situation and make the right people notice you.

Introduce Yourself

Our Fellow Travel Bloggers in Alaska

Our first real press trip was the Princess Cruises Twitter Trip. It was the mother of all Press Trips where we were invited to tweet from sea for two weeks. We had the trip of a lifetime on a Twitter trip to Alaska alongside some of the most powerful travel bloggers out there. We never thought we'd be a part of such a strong campaign so early in our career. We didn't have the credentials of EarthXplorer and we didn't have the influence of AOL's Gadling but here we were, invited to tweet right beside these two travel icons.

We weren't above sending Princess a tweet after their first Twitter trip to introduce ourselves and let them know that we're an adventure travel blog. We knew that their next trip to Alaska would be perfectly targeted to our demographic and put it in their ear that they should invite us along on their next trip! So remember if you don't pursue what you want how will you ever get it?

Meet in Person and Follow Up

Our Intrepid Travel Group, in Sichuan Province sans Dave

It was at a travel meet up in Toronto that we first met our good friends at Intrepid Travel. We hit it off and had a great time talking travel with them. We had the same beliefs and values about seeing the world as Intrepid Travel and the next day we decided to send them our media package. We wanted to let them know that we loved their company and hopefully we could work with them one day when the timing was right. This is why it is important to meet face to face. Your personality carries just as much weight as your numbers.

It was a couple of months later that we were on our way to China taking part in their Grand China Tour and a long and happy relationship was born.

Reach Out

On our Motorbike Tour of Thailand with Smiling Albino

We assumed that because Thailand is such a popular destination for backpackers and Travel Bloggers, it would be impossible to get the attention of the tourist board. However, we ed the Tourism Authority of Thailand anyway because we knew we had a great idea. We searched for a name and sent them a pitch. We were nervous when we hit send on the computer, but they were very helpful and put us in touch with the person that we should be talking to.

After a couple more emails, we found the proper in the company and they liked our idea. It was unique and showed people a different side of Thailand that they wanted to showcase. A couple of weeks later, we were on an amazing two-week adventure through the country with the Smiling Albino having us experience a Thailand that we have never seen before!

Use Social Media

Our page

You need to engage with the people you want to work with. Companies can't notice everyone so you have to make yourself stand out.

Many of our fellow bloggers travel on sponsored trips that we are not a part of. We may not be a part of that trip, but we get involved and interact with them and the sponsor while it is going on by retweeting their posts and engaging with the tourism board or company.

When we see our friends such as Travel Dudes or Isabelles Travel Guide on a trip, we make sure to retweet them with the trips organized hashtag whenever we can. The tourist boards may be watching and they will take notice of who is sharing their invited bloggers posts. Plus we like to support our fellow bloggers to show these companies the power of social media. The better they do promoting their trip, the better it is for all of our business.

You just may be invited on the next one if you engage and let the people in charge know that you exist. Many top bloggers always share articles freely from their fellow bloggers sponsored trips. Just because they didn't get invited this time doesn't mean that they won't be invited the next. And that explains why they do so well in this business.

Be Prepared

People won't know that they can work with you if you don't let them know are open to partnerships. Put up a media page that gives information about your blog. We labelled ours Advertise/Pr. Make it easy for people to quickly reference and find out everything they need to know about your business. Give them the option to download your media kit for more information.

Make things easy for people wanting to work with you and let them know what they can get in return when partnering with you. When you companies be prepared to show them why they should work with you and send them a media kit to go along with your pitch idea.

Explain what your blog is about, who the target market is and who reads your blog. This will let companies know quickly whether or not you are the right fit for their demographic. They can then move on to check out your blog statistics and rankings and cross reference with their own system.

So, the next time you see your fellow Travel bloggers on a press trip, traveling with a tourism board or partnering with a company, don't be discouraged. Start to ask yourself, what can I do to get on one of those trips?

71 Responses to "Get Your Travel Blog Noticed"

By Backpacking Panda December 30, 2013 - 10:16 am

Thanks for sharing with us your tips and insights! this is very encouraging for new bloggers like me find helpful tips from experienced bloggers. your story really touched my heart, and I’m happy to know that there are brave people out there living and doing only what makes them feel happy.(=

Thank you for the kind words. It’s important that we all work together. It’s a big world and lots of space for everyone to succeed. WE had some amazing people share their advice with us, so we try to share what we’ve learned whenever we can as well. Cheers!

By Jaryd September 18, 2013 - 6:45 am

Thank you for this super informative post. I too attended a Travel Massive? meet up in Sydney and learn’t the same things. If you don’t pitch, how do these companies even know you exist. So I started researching trips that would suit myself and my blog and just pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch. There is never any harm in asking right, of coarse you have to sell yourself why you suit the job. Cheers again

By Escaping My Comfort Zone August 26, 2013 - 4:55 am

By The Fairytale Traveler by Christa Thompson August 26, 2013 - 4:29 am

I love this post. I'm still such a newb but I still put myself out there. Having 2 travel blogs has really helped. One is tailored to my region in the US (My Weekender) and the other is global (the Fairytale Traveler). I have had great success with reaching out to local CVBs. It has given me some training in working with them and understanding the systems they use. I've been hosted and given V.I.P. passes to cities and I have been able to deliver good content with great photos because of it, which in turn has gotten the attention of other industry professionals… it's all exponential.

Your tips are great. I am pretty much doing this but now I'll be doing it with a sharper edge. Thanks for writing this and thanks for verbalizing that it's okay to reach out to the industry. What advice do you have for the kids without all the fancy numbers? Sometimes I feel like I'll turn grey before I see numbers like yours…(that's not too far off btw) lol.

By Bekabuluh August 21, 2013 - 1:32 pm

Great tips, and ones that promote a healthy competition. Here in Indonesia, travel bloggers can go to such low levels to get noticed, including by doing plagiarism for those who can’t write well in English. I guess being in a supporting community should help us create a healthy environment where we can learn from one another and not bring each other, or even oneself, down.

Well said. We need to support one another not try to bring each other down. As the community grows and gains respect that can only help us all. Unfortunately there’s always a few bad eggs in all businesses, that’s terrible that people plagiarize. We’ve had our stuff taken from our blog too. We see it up on other blogs with no link or reference to our stuff. But remember, it went up on your blog first and google will penalize those who steal. It’s easy to track what was published first. that’s what we love about the digital age.

By Ben Gurion Airport February 7, 2012 - 6:04 am

By 100 Places to Visit Before You Die January 10, 2012 - 9:05 am

Great post and information, we have and accounts and are getting about 3,000 visits a day at the moment but still feel there is more potential to increase this even more and are looking for other ways to get noticed.

Does anyone know of anywhere that you get submit your website for things like Travel website of the week?

By How to Get More Media Mentions And Press Perks December 11, 2011 - 2:21 pm

By Adam Dudley December 11, 2011 - 12:24 pm

Thank you, Dave & Deb! The overarching message of this post is music to my ears: Be Proactive!!!

A tough question for all us doing bold and creative work to ask ourselves as often as possible is, “What am I doing every day to get the kinds of results I want?”

We also need to look at the people that are already getting the kinds of results we desire (E.g. Marketingkonferenz), and ask, “What are they doing that I am not?” Deb and Dave gave us a start on the answer to this question in this post. Take a look at their Advertise-PR page…they’ve been busy, busy, busy!!!

Something else travel bloggers could do to raise their exposure (that I notice they are not doing) is to leverage the power of the online press release. For as little as $25 on a service like WebWire, you can have your timely, SEO-optimized release distributed across the entire web, or, to a more targeted audience like the tourism industry for a little more money. Send one of these out every 2-weeks with a compelling story angle, and I guarantee you’ll eventually get a press hit.

One more tool that could probably be leveraged more by travel bloggers is a free publicity service called HARO (Help A Reporter Out). Specific travel industry leads come in all week that are relevant to travel bloggers. Again, answer a few of these every day and you’re bound to get a press hit. And it’s totally free!!!

The bottom line is: We’ve got to work it if we want it.

Full disclosure: I have absolutely no affiliation with either WebWire or HARO. These are simply services I have found useful in building our business.

By debndave December 1, 2011 - 3:44 pm

By IsabellesTravel November 30, 2011 - 12:05 am

Great article! Social media is very powerful and I think it`s important to be yourself, people will notice you. I always enjoy other travel bloggers trips online through their photos & stories either for myself to go one day or for my followers/readers who might want to see that destination or experience the adventure. Thanks so much for mentioning me 🙂

By debndave November 30, 2011 - 12:02 pm

Hi Isabelles. You are definitely one of the most sharing people online. We notice how generous you are tweeting our stuff when we are on another trip and you are right, it is on one hand to hopefully go one day, but it is also about sharing interesting information with your followers. That’s the number one most important point that I didn’t mention. We always have to think about our readers first.

By Adam November 29, 2011 - 5:25 pm

By debndave November 30, 2011 - 11:59 am

By Amanda November 29, 2011 - 5:16 pm

Thank so much for this post, guys! You’ve given me a lot to consider and think about. I’ve been slowly working on putting together a media kit for myself, so being able to see yours as an example will be very helpful. I’m going to have a very busy holiday break from school!

By debndave November 30, 2011 - 11:58 am

Thanks Amanda. We have actually just updated our media kit with our new logos and design. It is much better now and we’re pretty proud of it. We’ve had the same one for nearly 2 years and it was looking dated. We are hoping to have everything at this website that we want done by Christmas. It’s a never ending process.

By Mariellen Ward (@BreatheDreamGo) November 29, 2011 - 2:28 pm

Thanks so much for both a great wrap-up of the discussion at Toronto Travel Massive and adding so much more to it with your own experience and advice. As usual, you are very generous with sharing what what you’ve learned and you set a great example for others to follow.

Personally, I find it hard to keep all the balls in the air, but you two manage to do it, and do it well. You deserve your success!

By debndave November 30, 2011 - 11:55 am

Thanks Mariellen. It helps a lot that there are two of us and we make several lists each day. We divide and conquer. Having a home base for a couple of months helps a lot as well. We used to think that we had to be on the road full time to make an impact, but now we realize that coming home is just as important as traveling. It’s making the face to face connections that have given us some of our best opportunities.

By Chris November 29, 2011 - 11:45 am

By debndave November 30, 2011 - 11:49 am

Hi Chris, Yes, I do think the same principals go for an Italian Blog. Get to know people that you can work with in the Italy and Italian communities around the world. Destination specific blogs have an edge that they can partner and work with very targeted companies.

By debndave November 29, 2011 - 8:15 am

By Gerard ~ GQ trippin November 28, 2011 - 7:32 pm

Great tips! We’re small, but rising steadily! We originally set this blog out to be a hobby, but seeing many other bloggers make travel a career is very inspiring. We’re just starting to get the business side of things and it seems overwhelming, but once you get your feet wet it all seems doable.

By Melanie Waldman November 28, 2011 - 7:06 pm

Big hugs to you, my friends, for your mention and for sharing this helpful information with our community! I’m in awe of all you’ve done as a team, and hope to have the opportunity to travel with you both again — sponsored or unsponsored. 🙂

By Debbie Beardsley @ European Travelista November 28, 2011 - 5:35 pm

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 7:46 pm

Hi Debbie, thanks. It is important to approach people with a unique idea and give them a reason for wanting to partner with you. I know that you probably would do this anyway, but for the sake of people reading in the future, I will just add…Make sure to send in an pitch stating a campaign that suits your niche and demographic and will provide them with a strong return on their investment. People receive a lot of emails every day and you need to make yourself stand out. To just ask for a sponsored tour somewhere won’t be enough. Entice them with your idea and what you can do for them. Cheers and good luck, it will happen.

By may delory November 28, 2011 - 4:54 pm

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 7:41 pm

By Melvin November 28, 2011 - 3:28 pm

Great article & so true! But I must say that I’m always very jealous if others are on a blog trip and I’m not. But I’m still happy for them!

And as the whole industry seems to change a bit, we have to keep in mind why social media is special and why we enjoy so much. Yes, tweet other blogger’s blog trip tweets/posts and help each other. It’s fun and you profit out of it as well.

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 7:41 pm

Hi Melvin, thanks. Traveldudes is included on nearly every hosted tour, so so at least you don’t have to feel jealous too often :-) But I know what you mean. It is the perfectionist in all of us. We all want more and that is what makes a business successful. Striving for more.

By Matthew Karsten November 28, 2011 - 3:27 pm

So I just got invited on my very first big press trip. They ed me out of the blue (almost didn’t believe it).

I’ve had many of the same questions as everyone else, and this post is a great breakdown of things you can do to improve your chances. I need to work harder on all of them myself, especially if I want these kinds of trips to continue!

This is the group joining me on the 2 week press trip to South Africa in December:

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 7:36 pm

Congratulations Matthew, that is very exciting and South Africa rocks. It looks like you are going with a great group of people as well. This is just the beginning, enjoy! Good for you for going into it thinking of the trip as a business.

By Shani | Don't Waste Life November 28, 2011 - 3:13 pm

Very helpful post – thanks! I’ve been loving reading all your tips on how to improve your success as a travel blogger. We’ve just started our travel blog recently and are constantly on the look out for inspiring articles.

I’m looking forward to having a sponsored trip at some point. Our goal is start local since we still have our regular jobs for now! Any guidelines on minimum numbers that we would need to have for followers, page views, etc before it is worth reaching out to companies for sponsored trips? Thanks for the advice!

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 7:35 pm

That is a great idea Shani. Working with local companies is a good start. There isn’t a magic number when it comes to page views or followers, Everyone has a different criteria. Of course statistics help as people want to reach as large of an audience as possible, but engagement is extremely important.

By Lash November 28, 2011 - 12:08 pm

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 7:31 pm

By Carol Perehudoff November 28, 2011 - 10:25 am

This is a great post, guys, and you’re always so generous with your information. The only thing I’d like to add is that I get tired of blogger/travel writer tweets that are so constantly gushing it’s like fake-o cyber air kissing. Of course the host wants good advertising, but advertising is their job not yours. Try to keep it real with humour, insider tips and/or advice. And good luck to you!

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 10:51 am

I agree with you about that Carol. We try to keep it very professional and when we say that we retweet people’s posts that are on a sponsored trip, we share their information and blog posts. Not their useless tweets like “see you at the bar” That doesn’t further a campaign but helping out our friends with a retweet or share on one of their posts written about the destination is a win win. I so agree, insider tips, humour and advice is important. The love you babes and heading to the bar does not help the pr firm or the blogger gain credibility. Thanks for adding that point.

By Andi of My Beautiful Adventures November 28, 2011 - 8:48 am

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 10:52 am

Thanks Andi. It’s really a win win to share. We all do better as bloggers become more professional while doing their jobs. As we grow as an industry, we will be taken more seriously as the years go on.

By Akila November 28, 2011 - 8:05 am

This is a great post guys! I think the key that many folks forget is that it is important to ASK. If you don’t ASK, then you won’t get anything. Our very first trip was with a safari company — we got in touch with them and asked whether they would be interested in sponsoring us and they were.

Also, and I think this is key — you both do a fantastic job of providing immediate ROI to the people sponsoring you. You tweet/FB about the trips your on and your sponsors and you also write about them very quickly. I see a lot of travel bloggers getting sponsors and it taking weeks to get a tweet out (and months and months on end to get a blog post out about that trip.) I always create a deadline when I’m working with a sponsor and say that I will provide x to them within x number of days of the trip/product received, etc.

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 10:56 am

Excellent points Akila. It is important to be immediate with your information. The tourism boards and companies are relying on this campaign right now. We were talking with the other bloggers on our last trip to Jamaica and everyone there had the right attitude. We were there to work first and then have fun. The lucky thing about our jobs is that we can combine the two. As long as the work comes first and you get the social media sharing and information for your blog posts together, you can then go out and have some fun. Twitpics always work good at generating conversations and excitement about a destination.

By Wolfmaan November 28, 2011 - 6:31 am

By Christine | Grrrl Traveler November 28, 2011 - 6:02 am

Thanks for breaking this down for us! I’ve not been on a press trip and wondered how bloggers got them. It’s a little frustrating feeling left out and in the dark and appreciate insight into how this works..

I have a question: What if our social media numbers aren’t high? Do sponsors still consider blogs which aren’t running high numbers?

By Karen Bryan November 28, 2011 - 5:58 am

IMO bloggers are far too focused on press trips; it’s almost like they are the currency for travel bloggers; that your success is measured by the number of press trips on which you’re invited. I agree that it’s a great perk. However in an ideal world I’d like to be able to fund my own travel, so I could go to the destination I choose, which I judge will be of most interest to my readers, instead of going to the destination of the next press trip. I’ve written on this topic: http://www.europealacarte.co.uk/blog/2011/03/29/blogging-business/

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 11:04 am

Well said Karen. The blogging trip isn’t the be all and end all. This is a post about getting noticed for one though, and it is the first step in starting to become a professinal blogger. People seem to forget that the process is incremental. You won’t get paid for travel if you haven’t proven yourself. Press trips and hosted tours are a great way to build your CV. I do feel that it is good to get out there and meet pr firms and tourism boards. These are our partners after all and especially at first, it is a way to grow your name in the market. Eventually you can work on business partnerships with them but if you don’t have a track record to show them what you are capable of, they won’t have a reason to hire you. We spent a time building our credibility and work ethic and now have taken it to the next level. A sponsored tour will have to be something pretty special for us to accept or it will have to be a pr firm that we have wanted to work with for some time. People need to start looking at the hosted trips as a stepping stone, not the pinnacle. Thanks for sharing, I’m heading over to check out your post now. I always respect and appreciate what you have to say. I often think we have the same values and end goal, we just get there differently.

By Christy @ Technosyncratic November 28, 2011 - 5:30 am

Great post, and great timing! There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere lately about press trips and such, and it is easy for us smaller travel bloggers to get discouraged. These are really practical tips, though, and prove that you just have to put yourself out there.

By debndave November 28, 2011 - 11:08 am

You are right Chisty. I don’t think of you as a small blog and you have a great niche to get noticed. It is putting yourself out there and making connections that is the key to any business. Too many bloggers don’t do is think of it as a business, yet want it to be a business. Remember, I am talking to the people that want to make a career out of blogging, not those that are doing it as a hobby. That is a completely different mind set. I am not saying we have great business minds by any means, but we look at each situation as a business opportunity not a “FREE” trip or tour. We think about how each trip will further our careers by means of making connections, having content and learning from our fellow bloggers. We have walked away from tours with valuable information by brainstorming and discussing ideas with our peers.